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Pilots who overshot MSP airport were using laptops

Two Northwest Airlines pilots told federal investigators that they ignored radio calls from air traffic controllers Wednesday, while they used their laptop computers to review the company's new scheduling procedures.

First officer Richard Cole told the National Transportation Safety Board that he was explaining the scheduling procedures to the plane's captain, Timothy Cheney, while the plane cruised past the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport at 37,000 feet. The new scheduling system was initiated following the merger between Delta and Northwest Airlines.

The company prohibits the use of personal computers on the flight deck.

Both pilots told investigators they did not monitor calls from air traffic controllers, even though they heard messages sent by radio dispatchers, the NTSB said in a statement released Monday.

The pilots also said they did not notice messages that were sent by company dispatchers. Air traffic controllers tried for more than an hour to contact Cheney and Cole.

Air traffic controllers in Denver and Minneapolis repeatedly tried
without success to raise the pilots by radio.

“It's inexcusable.”

Former NTSB Chairman Jim Hall

Other pilots in the
vicinity tried reaching the plane on other radio frequencies. Their
airline tried contacting them using a radio text message that
chimes.

Authorities became so alarmed that National Guard jets were
readied for takeoff at two locations and the White House Situation
Room alerted senior White House officials, who monitored the
airliner carrying 144 passenger and five crew members as it flew
across a broad swath of the mid-continent completely out of contact
with anyone on the ground.

The NTSB interviewed the pilots for more than five hours Sunday. The pilots denied engaging in any heated conversation during the flight, and also denied fatigue or ongoing medical conditions.

Neither pilot was aware of the airplane's location until a flight attendant called the pilots about five minutes before the scheduled landing to request an estimated time of arrival, the pilots told the NTSB.

At that point, Cheney said he looked at his flight display and realized they had passed the airport. The pilots then made contact with air traffic controllers and headed back to the airport.

When the controllers asked for an explanation, the pilots cited "just cockpit distraction" and "dealing with company issues," the report says.

"It's inexcusable," said former NTSB Chairman Jim Hall. "I
feel sorry for the individuals involved, but this was certainly not
an innocuous event - this was a significant breach of aviation
safety and aviation security."

Cheney and Cole are both experienced pilots, according to the
NTSB. Cheney, 53, was hired by Northwest in 1985 and has about
20,000 hours of flying time, about half of which was in the A320.
Cole had about 11,000 hours of flight time, including 5,000 hours
on the A320.

Both pilots told the board they had never had an accident,
incident or violation, the board said.

The pilots acknowledged that while they were engaged in working
on their laptops they weren't paying attention to radio traffic,
messages from their airline or their cockpit instruments, the board
said.

That's contrary to one of the fundamentals of commercial
piloting, which is to keep attention focused on monitoring messages
from controllers and watching flight displays in the cockpit.

"It is unsettling when you see experienced pilots who were not
professional in flying this flight," said Kitty Higgins, a former
NTSB board member. "This is clearly a wakeup call for everybody."

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., called the incident "the ultimate
case of distracted driving, only this time it was distracted
flying."

The Air Transport Association, a trade group that represents
major U.S. airlines, expects pilots to comply with federal
regulations and airline policies, but hasn't taken a position on
the use of electronic devices by pilots while in the cockpit, ATA
spokeswoman Elizabeth Merida said.

Pilot schedules are tied to their seniority, which also
determines the aircraft they fly and layoff protection. Those at
the top of the list get first choice on vacations, the best routes
and the bigger planes that they get paid more for flying.

Following Delta Air Lines' acquisition of Northwest last
October, an arbitration panel ruled that the pilot seniority lists
at the two carriers should be integrated based on pilots' status
and aircraft category.

The panel ruled that pilots from one carrier would not, for a
period of time, be able to fly certain planes the other carrier
brought to the combination.

The panel's decision affected the roughly 12,000 pilots of Delta
and Northwest.